Outcasts of Gideon

Utaime

Houith was joyful in the swirl of their convergence. She watched it grow, its influence spread among their people. Pilgrims would journey to encounter a faint glimmer of the joining. Those preparing to wander would sit among their radiance. They would become absorbed in the passion, enveloped in the wonderment. Houith's journeys were reborn in her convergence with K'rthan and his sister, Oonth.

Where once Houith felt her own waning, the convergence sustained her. There she remained ever at the cusp of absolute understanding. There they became a vanguard for their people. It was a joining in which they might pass millennia.

This truth endured until the voice.

It came to Houith as the piercing of a sphere. Yet it did not come to her here in this convergence, in this time. Instead, it came to a convergence prior. It was the second time she had engaged in transcendent communion. It was a time before her wandering. By appearing then, the voice introduced a change to her history. It was a voice that had not been heard before. Now it had. It was a happening that had not happened.

She removed herself from their union. K'rthan and Oonth rose as well, their attention drawn to her. I have twice before entered upon a joining such as this, each time in a role now occupied by each of you, thought Houith.

We have witnessed this.

In the role now filled by Oonth, I served to inspire through wonder and curiosity. In the role now filled by K'rthan, I found my lust to wander.

We have witnessed this as well.

In her mind, Houith stepped through the images that had overtaken her. The memories that had not been memories. Now, a voice has intruded.

This we can affirm.

Indeed, you have witnessed what I myself experienced, my natua present, my mind afire. Houith rose still higher, her body adrift on a cloud of doubt and confusion. Her mind became a gray-soaked trembling of uncertainty. She felt K'rthan's eyes upon her, his mind probing where it found no purchase, for her mind had lost its moorings. Had this voice but intruded on this convergence, all might not be lost. Its violation of my past cannot be.

She felt the force of K'rthan and Oonth gathering their minds together with hers. The revelation was distant but forming. It emerged from the mists of a past that did not occur. It expressed itself through her actions, her reactions. Her natua grew foreign to them as these ripples consumed it.

This occurrence is new to us.

As it is to me. The alteration in her natua neared completion.

Foreign to us as well is the potential. Is this how a failure of utaime appears?

"None have foretold a failure of utaime," she said aloud. Her voice echoed across the vastness of their realm.

She knew then that she had acted in haste. For with her announcement came a gathering of her people. The horde trembled not from the sound of the words but their meaning. They met in the midst of the three whose convergence held such promise. But the threat embodied in those words brought shadow. Tomorrow had always been uncertain. Where utaime could not be relied upon, yesterday was now uncertain as well.

Seeing the host of her people, Houith gathered herself. She had not long understood the power of her own words, but here stood evidence of it. She searched the teeming mass, conscious of the thoughts heaving and swaying. They had come at her words. This awoke in her a sadness, an empathy for their aimless minds. She'd brought this about, and hers were the only words that might ease their worry.

I have seen a vision of a past not past. I am here to tell you it may indeed have passed. She knew this to be a lie, something unheard of in Aitaoperaa. Yet she dared not risk the damage that a violation of utaime would bring to her people.

She sensed the mood begin to ease with her thoughts. Here she stood above her people, her unintended flock. The slightest of her words would be kindling, the least of her thoughts may spark them. They looked upon her as children haunted by darkness. She hoped to place in them a scepter of light which might guide them back to more pleasant dreams.

"I do not assert that we stand upon falsehood," she announced. "I believed at first to have witnessed a failure – a violation – of utaime. This belief was arrived at in haste, and further contemplation is needed. We shall not fail you."

This stilled the tumult. She sensed some solace in those most vexed. With this, the host receded. She dared not wonder at how long her words might suffice. Instead, she would focus her natua on the challenge. There would be no comfort in failure.

I have experienced a meeting from my past which did not occur in my past.

Does this only escape our memory, or has it truly broken the fabric of utaime?

You have witnessed my history with an intimacy so complete, you may answer this yourself.

Your history as you recall it. Are there corners forgotten, memories neglected, experiences lost to time?

Houith lowered her head toward her chest. She pressed her mind into herself, the effort radiating from her. After a short time, she exploded in light, her natua effulgent. Here she laid herself bare again, without restraint. Here they saw that the events of which she spoke indeed had not occurred despite having occurred. Now they knew the seed of her wandering long hidden from herself. It had been hidden because it had not previously occurred.

There came a voice bringing words never before heard. They were the words of a being not complete in our realm. The being assaulted us, believing us to be communicating. We were not, yet now we are. We must not allow this. No violation of utaime may be permitted. We must seek out this voice to silence it.

"Are you talking to me?" She heard the voice echo in her mind, sounds empty of meaning but for the violation they wrought.